Human skin is a remarkable organ. It can perceive a touch, and can immediately identify where on the body that the touch occurs, as well as other information such as the intensity and nature of the touch, e.g., whether it is hot or cold, soft or hard, or blunt or sharp.
The outer surface of structures such as buildings and vehicles are also subject to “touches,” particularly from electromagnetic (EM) radiation such as a laser impinging on the surface of the structure, and it would be desirable if it were possible to identify whether such an outer surface has been touched by radiation and where that touch occurs, as well as to be able to determine other characteristics of the touch such as the intensity of the radiation or its wavelength.
One example of a structure that would benefit greatly from being able to detect such laser radiation touches are aircraft.
Current aircraft cockpits are not outfitted with a method for detecting incident laser radiation. The method in place for using optical sensors for collision avoidance uses either a hand held or mounted apparatus similar to lidar. The apparatus sends out a signal and then detects the reflected returned signal In contrast, the proposed invention is an integral part of a vehicle and is intended to sense and respond to incident laser light location and intensity in real time and thereby use that information to adjust the vehicle trajectory. Current manned and robotic vehicles outfitted with optical sensors do not use the proposed approach.
Thus, there is a need for a simple, scalable apparatus and method for identifying and characterizing an electromagnetic radiation “touch” to a structure.